It took 3 years but we did it!

Confused with these points, as you a buyer without a broker:

4. Asked for and got a reduced commission -2%.

5. Did not sign a dual agency agreement and never would.

Please elaborate...

Commission reduced from 6 to 4%.

What I wrote hera about dual agency about 5 wks ago:
"Dual agency agreement is one of the slicked anti consumer pieces of crap that I have ever seen.

If the seller agrees to dual agency then the brokers’ fiduciary responsibility to the seller is significantly reduced. There is not much down side for the buyer to sign although some buyers may feel that they have established a relationship with the broker that goes beyond the particular transaction.

The lawyers for the major agencies fought long and hard for this and the agencies have now trained their brokers as to what to say to sellers and buyers.

One broker that I ran into at a showing had the dual agency checked off and said that they had made it mandatory that all sellers agree to dual agency or they could not represent them. At the same time this broker said to me that it was only a technicality and meant nothing. So which is it?

I see this as a way to mitigate the loss of revenue due to potential buyers not using the traditional model of having two brokers in the transaction and using alternatives such as Streeteasy."

ieb,
Congrats on your purchase & thank you for a great report.

Please clarify what your saying about dual agency. Seems you're implying that it might benefit buyer because dual agency diminishes broker's duty to seller.

Also, how did you avoid having 2 brokers: Did you only look at apts posted on SE, so you only encountered Seller's broker? You never had a broker show you apts, which could trigger a potential commission?

Please clarify what your saying about dual agency. Seems you're implying that it might benefit buyer because dual agency diminishes broker's duty to seller. - No, not good for either side, just much worse for seller.

Also, how did you avoid having 2 brokers: Did you only look at apts posted on SE, so you only encountered Seller's broker? You never had a broker show you apts, which could trigger a potential commission? - Only used a buyer's broker early on then told them that they no longer represented us. If a broker tried to send us listings we said no thank you and don't do that again, and that we had already seen the listing in Streeteasy.

"Commission reduced from 6 to 4%."

Still confused, the seller hired the broker and pays their fee, not you. Did you get that 2% difference from the seller? Did the seller save 2%, so they were more willing to work with you? Was this agreed upon after all negotiations or before????

"Still confused, the seller hired the broker and pays their fee, not you. Did you get that 2% difference from the seller? Did the seller save 2%, so they were more willing to work with you? Was this agreed upon after all negotiations or before????"

This is not difficult. The broker reduced their commission. The seller netted same amout as if full commission. During negoiations, not before.

>If a broker tried to send us listings we said no thank you and don't do that again, and that we had already seen the listing in Streeteasy.<

Exactly. Never accept unsolicited listings from a broker.

"Commission reduced from 6 to 4%."
I'm gonna take a guess: Often in RE transactions, the broker really wants the deal to close; if deal doesn't close, broker get squat. So, in the process of negotiating, often the buyer's last bit of price chopping is to ask broker to reduce their fee & broker often agrees.

So, the broker reworked their commission in the middle of negotiations and you are bragging about the great deal you got...me thinks you paid for that extra 2%

Actually, the broker was very decent about reducing the commission and because we were not represented, offered a lower rate when we made our first offer. The final rate was agreed to during negotiations.

whatever, enjoy your studio

apt boy - prehaps, you never know. I'm in sales myself.

ap - ues penthouse, really, you don't know me and quite happy about that!

ues penthouse
wowzer! sounds awesome. How many bdrms?

2 bdrms, private elevator

congrats ieb!!!

nice to see others go brokerless.. you'll find that it's not as painful as you imagined considering you can get comps for free or 40 bucks a month..

im not a broker basher as i've learned a thing or 2 from them..

im happy to give them 1% (via seller concession), but 3% is overkill..

oh and just to add it sucks that 98% of clueless brokers make the other 2% look bad.

hol4 - agree. The broker on the deal was a very decent person. When it's time to sell, they got a client.

ieb- i remember from last year- you were looking at apts on the UES that needed a lot of renovation. Just curious if the apt you bought was one in good condition or in need of reno? Given you said the apt last sold in 1999 I would guess this one is in good condition.

This one is in great shape. The one you mention was really spectacular and needed a gut renovation. We made a low ball offer and lost it to someone that paid twice our offer. We weren't looking for a project so it all worked out.

Congratulations! Sounds like a solid transaction. So, at 33% below 2007 comp does that put it at a 2004 price? Maybe we don't get there, but my mark is at the 2001/2002 level (hypothetically another 15% - 20% less than what you paid) so I wouldn't expect to do as well as the 1999 pricing. If financing at today's rates was a big part of your buy, then combined with your discount you probably couldn't do much better waiting. Yes your equity would we wiped out if financing is at 80% LTV, but I expect as a long-term hold you bounce back and then some during ownership.

angler7 - yes, that's how I see it. I figure we're OK in 5 yrs but if market really breaks maybe 10-15 yr before on plus side.

ieb: Nice! Enjoy.

@hol4 Why not have a broker you can work with that will rebate you 67% of the buy-side commission? You have someone to work with you as part of your team. Selling broker may be decent, but ultimately they are working for the seller. Do really know what the bottom line was as far as pricing goes? Not really, they probably had it all baked in already. The rebate model can make a lot of sense, it gives you the best of both worlds: Your own advocate, a known monetary added value after you negotiate your best deal. Of course you don't need a buyer broker, but with the right arrangement including full transparency, copied on all communications....

ieb Congratulations on the new home, may your life there be filled with joy!

Keith (broker)
http://www.theburkhardtgroup.com/about.php

congrats ieb!!! some buyers just like to do it on their own, and now there are more and more tools out there to help you! nothing wrong with going at it alone! Good luck with the new home!!

"@hol4 Why not have a broker you can work with that will rebate you 67% of the buy-side commission? "

keith you'd be one of the brokers i referred to the 2% category above just for admitting we're in a different informational landscape, tho i dont know u personally..

this day in age, it amazes me how many brokers still laugh at any form of negotiations.. buyers walk and give their biz to smarter brokers willing to talk..

"now there are more and more tools" yea noah haven't been on ur site in ages but it helped me much with a previous borker-less purchase.. lot of good info on there (except maybe that meltdown phase when the stock market imploded and you went all financial micro-analytical on us.. i prefer the RE data & articles which i find you better at)

Keith's a good marketer. Instead of talking about a 2% rebate, he phrases it as 67% which is totally legit and transparent. Cue apt23 and columbiacounty to act outraged.

Congrats ieb, but I just have to ask ... 100 apartments?

I'm curious about the psychology of that, since there are not that many different types of inventory on the UES.

Did you look at a bunch of apartments at one price point, and then subsequently raise your price point and buy?

Or did you decide you wanted an apartment that would be a bargain because it was flawed, and need to spend the time hunting for the right flaw?

Or was it something else? Most clients buy in the first 10, so I'm very curious.

ali r.
DG Neary Realty

perhaps because he didn't have a broker rushing him?

If I recall (and if its who I think u are), I showed IEB about 8 apts on a very tight schedule on a single day when he was in town from Boston. This was back in late 2009. One was gorgeous, we sent in low bid, it had a much higher one (so we were told) and deal didnt happen. Turns out that higher buyer was in breach of contract, and listing agent got his commission even though deal didnt close. That was last I heard of the buyer in regards to working together. No rushing from me, I can tell u that. There is enough pressure and stress on buyers before they send in a bit, to get even more from a broker who wants to close a fast deal. But sometimes buyers that lose a deal w/ a broker, even though it has absolutely nothing to do with that brokers service level, prefer to work on their own next time. Its fine, its the way the markets work, and its part of being a broker. Its a numbers game. If you work with 30 buyers over the course of a year, hopefully half will end up closing with you. There are many situations that can come up where work a broker puts into a client doesnt get rewarded. We have no right to complain, as its part of this job that we chose to accept.

My record (or I should say clients record) for viewings is 138 viewings and all were documented. Luckily for me my model accommodates this style. Sometimes a buyer will resurface after months, they have been looking just had not seen anything they were interested in, then out of the blue I get an email! lol We start working and they wind up buying.

That's part of the niche I fulfill for buyers, my time is not wasted and they don't have a broker getting annoyed at them or getting pushy after months (years?) of looking. I have clients that just signed a contract the other day that have been looking for 2+ years , I don't think theres anything strange about that...

Keith Burkhardt (broker with the patience of job (:

hol4 - hehe, thx for the feedback! These days all I write about is Manhattan real estate now that I have tools/charts/tables to quantify actual trends. Before that, I had nothing to tell me how market was doing right now. And I must admit, I do get bored of only doing one theme on the blog, but your right, its a Manhattan RE blog and content should be geared towards that! Thx!

Front Porch...we took 10 months and saw over 75 apartments (mostly at open houses) in the Gramercy, Murray Hill and consequently Sutton Place areas. During that course of time we assessed neighborhoods and debated apartment sizes as well as condition, i.e. whether we were willing/able to do renovations. We only took our broker to 4 of these apartments however. We felt we were doing our homework before making such a large investment but perhaps someone more knowledgeable about NY real estate would not need so much time.

Rosina, your story is more typical: "we didn't know what neighborhood we wanted, so it took us almost a year."

But three years? And with someone as skilled as Digs? I had forgotten ieb was from out-of-town, so it sounds like that's the answer -- this may have been more of a start-and-stop hunt.

And Keith, bless you for suffering through 138 apartments, but it sounds like you didn't go to them. I'm thinking more of the traditional model, where the broker walks through an apartment with a client and translates back to the client what his/her responses should dictate in terms of looking at future inventory.

The point is, that if the hunt is lasting long enough to try everyone's patience, it's the feedback loop that needs to be looked at as well as the hunt. There's really only so many 80s layouts, Edwardians, circa 2005 glass boxes, etc. to look at.

ali r.
DG Neary Realty

ieb: Congratulations! I'm glad to see your patience pay off. Thanks for sharing the details. Enjoy the new home.

front_porch: I have a client who has been looking for nineteen years. It's a little like the old joke: A 93-year-old couple walks into a divorce lawyer's office...

The concept of viewing scores of properties before buying suggests to me some people just don't know what they're looking for. Nothing wrong with this by the way, but don't pass it off as an active search when it's really nothing more than a long drawn out fact finding mission. Anyone who knows where and what they want and still goes through 80 properties has issues beyond what a broker is equipped to solve, which I think is what Ali really wanted to say.

Ali, I spent close to three years and well over 100 apts as well, but my neighborhood was broad and widened as I went along.
The thing is, it's easy for me to understand how it takes/took three years when you started around post Lehman.
Particularly for long term renters.
The entire first year was a total disconnect between most sellers and buyers. You generally had a 25% spread with neither side willing or forced to budge.
Second year you had the rental market tank giving buyers obvious higher ground.
By the third year, even a moron like me starts to understand a residential seller's mentality and you dispense with the lowball take it or leave it offers and get creative.
You now also start to have six months of desperate seller comps to use for ammunition.
In addition, the tremendous advantage streeteasy and using acris aids with these comps, especially on the leftover brokers. My definition of leftover brokers are the ones who road the 10/12 year run of flips and chronic equity escalation with no ability to discuss real estate tangeably only to mindlessly quote an office memo or shill article on the state RE that month and where it is going.

Special thanks to Streeteasy for showing how many people "save a listing" to their folder which told me my unit was flying way under the radar, with no "bidding wars" anywhere near the horizon.
I came in near 30% off previous purchasers peak 2007 purchase. I also feel if I stick around 5 years Im golden.

On the pyschology, well like anything that long, you run the gambit. For 1 quarter I just stopped looking, another time period I was seriously considering getting a 2 year with an option for 2 year lease.

I can tell you all, you can't look at enough apartments.
When you look at a substancial amount, you start coming up with a real list of what's most important to least for you instead of what you THINK is most important.

Examples for me that later became important
high ceilings
large living room
little or no work needed
low monthlies

things I thought were important
garage in building
condo
limits of south of 34th, north of delancey

I thought that it would be a good idea to provide some rationale.

First – Manhattan is fantastic!

We are very conservative investors and like a lot of people took a big a hit in the late ’90’s with the dot com bubble. Since then our investments have been in cash or high quality real estate.

Three years ago when it was the “End Of The World” and it even looked like money market funds would “break the buck”, we thought that certain asset classes would be safe investments. One interesting asset class is made of up real estate in a very select group that includes; NYC, Paris, London, Hong Kong, Monaco, and maybe a few other locations.

Now that interest rates are practically at zero and there is no return on conservative investment and savers are actually penalized, certain asset classes including the stock market continue to look very attractive.

In regards to real estate my feeling is that when interest rates go up they will raise the worth of all assets including national real estate values and that this will cause nyc prices to start the next serious move up. I’m not an economist so don’t ask me for further explanation, it’s just how I feel.

Ali and spinnaker - some truth to what you say but we are very deliberate and there's a lot of crappy apts out there and brokers that just don't want to waste their time.

Fair points Spinny

I think when Interest Rates start to power higher, it will lift value of most assets but it will also usher in a brand new campaign of fed debt monetization via treasury purchases in an attempt to keep rates lower. Can u imagine what 7% lending rates would do to debt rollovers, housing at this stage of the game?

First of all, ieb, congratulations! How exciting for you!

Second, I'm the client of Keith B's who has been looking for 2+ years and just signed a contract as well. My husband and I really appreciated his broker model. We saw two apartments together over the course of almost a year and otherwise I did the search on my own.

We, too, are happily ending our long search (and now embarking on a renovation, another challenge!).

Sorry that was rude of me IEB, particularly as it's your thread...... CONGRATS!
You too rlmnyc.
Seems like a lot SE forum regulars/semiregulars have bought in the last 4 months.

its great to see old school SE guys closing on Manhattan property. I still miss spunky. Would love to have a former SE owner that recently sold, come out and explain rationale like ieb did here...this is why these SE forums continue to be so interesting

tskr - civility is the new rage here but I'm having a hard time getting used to it. Been thinking about starting a downtown owners suck thread just to get things moving again.

Welcome ieb, sit down, relax, enjoy the view. Let me introduce you to inonada. I think nads is now the last semi-sane holdout on this site. His favorite color scheme is white on white, he has made a ton of moola while we have squandered ours on a something something asset class- I forget what he calls it exactly. Anyway, don't try to tell him how wonderful you feel about being master of your domain now, or how you read that white Frigidaire appliances give off trace amounts of nuleon gas that target cognitive centers of the brain. Just humor him and ask for investment advice until we can get him safely out of there.

thanks ieb and truth, that's very interesting.

enjoy your places!

ali r.
DG Neary Realty

LOL, I love nada, one of the smartest people on here, but he has stiffened over the last 6 months.

Ive only hedged my bet, I hate moving, and hate my last apartment.
If the market tanks another 25% and I want to upgrade, I'll sell my place for 25% less and buy a bigger place for 25% less.
If it goes up, I'll ride the next 10 year bubble.
In any case, as a new owner, furnishing has become a priority over arguing who is right and who is wrong. :)

Thank you Ali.

Advice to you and other brokers courting undeciders, find your customer 3 completely different types of units to look at, even when they tell you what they want. This may eliminate 10/15 units from the 30 unit tire kicker which you may end up in the passenger seat for.

Well, truth, one aspect of my business model is "cool clients I like" so even if the search lengthens I'm having a good time.

A legacy of my last job as a reporter I guess -- I consider it a luxury that I get to work in fields where I meet the world's most interesting people.

ali r.
DG Neary Realty

if you assume that the best apartments tend to move very quickly and furthermore that the best apartments tend not to be sold in the first place, it makes complete sense that you would have to wait and look at a lot of places until you strike gold.

the idea that at any given time, all segments of a given market are represented by current sellers is absurd.

Great point, Columbia, but in a world where real estate brokers (1) know their inventory, and therefore know where the gold is, and (2) have authority (which I'm not sure is the world we live in) the map of the hunt ought to be conveyable.

We had a client I met on this board who was renting in the East Village, and he wanted to buy in the East Village. It didn't take long to explain that for him, given his criteria, the choices would be (a) 170 Second Avenue / (b) Ageloff Towers / (c) the Saint Mark.

He ended buying in Ageloff.

The purchase process took a certain amount of time because something had to come up at 170 Second Avenue so that he could see it, and not a lot trades there, but the entire hunt and its probable outcome, which turned out to be its eventual outcome, were laid out by my colleague 30_yrs at a Starbucks within the space of about an hour and a half.

ali r.
DG Neary Realty

Congrats, ieb. Here are my thoughts on the financials. I think the difference between the 1999 and 2007 comps you laid out match the SE index very closely, and your price is a good 15+% below the latest SE index value. My thoughts, ordered from most likely to least likely, are:

1) You got a great price.
2) It was likely related to the fact that you looked at lots of places.
3) Perhaps the coop market is a little weaker than the condo market.
4) Maybe the market in general has taken a turn for the worse as we're coming off a bump in interest rates in relation to when contracts were signed.
5) Maybe there's a special post-2007 flaw in your specific unit we don't know about.

If I were a betting man, I'd go with #1 and #2.

The place sounds like a great home.

Spinny, I love my Frigidaire. On the place you bought, did you leave the Frigidaire in there or have you renovated? (Serious question, sans Frigidaire.)

The best oven I ever saw was at a friend's house in Pasadena. It was this stove that looked like it was from the 50's. Turns out it was from the 50's. Had a little mirror doo-dad at the top so you could look in to see how your turkey was roasting in the oven because it didn't have heat-proof glass, had a little mini-oven to one side. Apparently, leaving it in the house was a big negotiating point when they bought it as the prior owners ha scoured the ends of the earth for it. One nice thing about old ovens, though. Boy, they didn't have the same safety standards. Flames shooting out from the broiler, hot enough for a proper broiled steak.

Wrongo again professor nadio. The vintage 80's Hotpoint purring in the corner of the kitchen spoke to my sensibilities, as did the wallpapered ceiling.

Good. It's crazy to toss working appliances. My 1991 Amana has never skipped a beat.

Nada you brought me back to my childhood, huge grease fires as my Mother cooked the steaks in our "vintage" broiler. It would not be a proper Thursday night without my father cursing the flames and my Mom doing battle with the steaks and fire as it exploded out of the drawer upon opening! lol.Let's see a Miele do that!

hah Keith I just had a grease fire a few weeks ago. The ceiling is still black. I was making chicken wings and forgot to dry them off first. I was scared to death. Years ago when I lived in the village I didn't know why the oven was going on. So after turning it on and off for an hour my father said, "oh you have to light it." So I did. Kaboom. Glad I was off to the side and I only singed my eyelashes

ieb why arent you posting a link?

deanc
for some privacy?

Se forum unicorn dust leaves info on here forever

Yes, privacy. The anonymity is why. Also why I only talk in percentages.

Both cc & inonada very close to what it is. The seller is European and not here. He is also difficult in that non-direct euro sort of way (I can not possibly get back to you for at least a week; I’m off to a private island for a birthday party with the Duke of Jambone.). He lost at least one sale a few months ago because the potential buyer just gave up.

Like cc said, these apts often sell to related parties or by word of month. There was a death in the seller’s family and they said it left them with too much property and that was why so they said.

ieb, congrats on a good purchase! I looked at 60 apts and found 98% way overpriced, let alone finding one that was underpriced to begin with (and you negotiated 5% more).

ieb, you give me hope. Congrats on your purchase!

We've been sort-of-looking for 4 years, but looking very seriously for 3 months. In those those 3 months, we've seen 20-30 apartments, of which only one we loved, and maybe 2-3 more that we liked a lot. On the one we loved, there's a huge price disconnect between us and sellers (obviously subject to debate who is "right"), but they're looking for a 40-50% premium over their 2005 purchase price, of which a bit is renovations they did, but only a bit.

So we keep looking, and hopefully we'll eventually find the one.

newbuyer99, if you are looking prime downtown, the prices are only 10% below the peak.

Cursing the flames??? How else are you gonna get a nice crust on that medium rare steak?

What am I talking about, my parents used to order their steaks well-done. Fortunately, little inonada didn't know enough to be ashamed by the order.

ieb, Congratulations on finding your new home at a good price. It is a lot of work to find what you like. Enjoy.

New buyer - two things, don't give up. I was ready toquit or at least ake a long break and alo getting very cranky. You'll know when you find whats right for you.

Other thing to to always remember is that brokers are not your friend. They should be considered as employees that you fire when they don't perform or do what you want them to do.

this is rather embarrassing---for the op.

Crowing about taking 3 years and viewing over 100 apartments to view----this is a triumph over the brokerage community?

Please

congrats, enjoy your new place...

Jim - Finally, a decent rebuttal!

My main gripe about nyc real estate brokers is as follows. Yes, there are a few good ones but they are few and far between. I think that clients get confused about what a professional like a lawyer does when it comes to representing someone. For instance, parties in a legal situation are each represented by a lawyer and the two lawyers talk it out and an agreement is reached. Lawyers have ethics that real estate brokers don’t and to have a high value transaction negotiated and gossiped and filtered between two questionable agents is not something that I like.

Next 6% fee is too high and I don’t see how that is justified. Really, $180,000 on a $3M sale is just too high.

Finally, the attitude of some of these brokers is just too much. See above ^^^ “Or was it something else? Most clients buy in the first 10, so I'm very curious.”

ieb, when I say "most clients buy in the first 10," that's not attitude, that's skill. My clients are very busy wealthy people, and one of the things they hire me to do is to curate for them.

Also, if you think your lawyer hasn't gossiped about your transaction value, he/she is a unicorn.

ali r.
DG Neary Realty

hey ali -take a chill pill

"...very busy wealth people" "curate for them" "that's not attitude, that's skill"
Excuse me your highness, I guess the 6% commission includes a healthy serving of humility.

but, if ms. ali only deals with the high and mighty, why so much time spent here with the plebes?

sjtmd, touche: I admit, humility was not one of the courses I took at Harvard.

ali r.
DG Neary Realty

Ali G - I guess you were done "curating" for your wealthly clients that you had the time to sit at your open house in a fidi studio?

And we know they did not teach humility at Harvard, but I thought it was a class for new employees at The Post

I guess an Ivy League education is required if one is to become a curator.

Love the wiki page, Ali G must have had fun curating it

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alison_Rogers

alison--you are proving to be pretty much a typical broker--and it puzzles me that you continually cite that you attended harvard--how many in your courses (I know, you didn't study humility) at harvard went on to become residential real estate brokers?

you may well be the most underachieving underachiever of your class--stuck here shilling among us wealthy and powerful on streeteasy

broker troll--you will never curate for this wealthy and powerful client! Oh wait, this is too easy, back off.

I am a DIY-person all the way when it comes to real estate (though I like having a broker negotiate). But I know many people who don't feel the same way and it has nothing to do with price range. They want a broker to identify and (in some cases) tell them what they really want.

ieb (OP) said above that they saw over 100 apartments in 3 years. That doesn't sound like a lot to me, unless a buyer had super-narrow criteria, and the list of places that could satisfy that was truly finite, like ali's east village example above. Otherwise, 2 open houses a weekend for a year gets you to 100. And probably more to the point, over the past 3 years the pricing has been so irrational and inconsistent among sellers, that I don't see how it's possible to sort out what a good value. (Market pricing was hardly efficient among all the shifting sands.)

http://dgneary.com/BrokerWebsite3/Code/sales_detail.asp?index=9

above see alison's one listing, a co-broke studio

hey, she's a fussy curator.

ieb is it possible that you could give me input on an apartment. A difficult decision I need to make soon.

Do I really have to apologize for having two careers? I thought everybody here pretty much knew that was my deal; I don't do real estate full-time, as I continue to write part-time, but I do work very very hard for my clients -- several of whom I've met on this site, and one or two of whom actually went to my old school.

I do have a downtown convertible-3 coming up, a listing from someone I met the old-fashioned way, if W wants another listing to make fun of.

ali r.
DG Neary Realty

For the newbies on SE, front_porch has been a respected member of this board for a while who has offered very good advice throughout the years. The ones attacking her are the ones that need to chill.

Me? All I have ever offered is informed advice about living in TriBeCa.

front_porch, I wouldn't worry about Wtushy. This is a guy who created a posting name about his doubly pointy ass. he reminisces about New York City having a flood of used condoms, in the same breath that he tells us on streeteasy that he watches Barney videos (with kids?). Yes, he actually did tell us that.

There's something horribly wrong.

'mornng bottoms. I don't want to delve too much into your short man complex on a public forum, but didn't you say the only thing you didn't like about your Trans Am was that the dashboard was too high? I bring this up only because my kid is just about done with her booster seat so maybe we could hook up offline. It's about as inconspicuous as that rug on your head so I think it might work. Cheers.

Does ANYONE like Wtushy?

ahh spinner, delve away---the straws you grab at are entertaining. hair and height are certainly not my weak spots.
but keep pushing buttons randomly and maybe youll hit one that affects.

as to alison's buttons, clearly the comments that have resulted from her arrogance about her underachiever-of-the-year status as a harvard grad, her shilling among us rich and powerful here on streeteasy, and her careful curating of her current gallery of listing (see the studio cobroke); kinda got you all defensive---touched a raw nerve, no?

your probing faults you imagine i have is quite amusing---seems sorta desperate--perhaps these are your own weaknesses?

hookup?? not taken with spinners--i'm too tall, and my hair gets in my eyes when forced to look so far down--im sure there's someone out there for you

Wtushy, you seem good at picking out people's flaws. But in prison, they treat guys with inclinations of your type (Barney videos? used condoms?) a bit differently than all the other criminals.

OK I understand bottoms, hush hush.. Well then if it isn't your height, is that Allison's contributions are appreciated and yours are non-existent that has you feeling a little inferior?

Wtushy doesn't feel inferior. That's the scary part of his perversions...he feels they are normal.

Bottoms, more run-ins? Couldn't agree more with spin - front_porch's contributions have been helpful more often than not. Yours are just hairy.

bjw, I think he prefers to go by tushy, not bottoms

It’s the nature of boards like this to bring out the best and worst in us. When someone uses the term “curate” in the context of selling apts then they open themselves up to serious criticism.

By the way, I think that any new buyer looking at this brokers comments would be really turned off.

>ieb (OP) said above that they saw over 100 apartments in 3 years. That doesn't sound like a lot to me

yep 3 months of going to 5 open houses every sunday is 60.

Ali is one of the few brokers on this site not shy about being visible, this in and of itself is remarkable given the treatment she receives from some. And what a challenge it must be for people like bottoms to sling arrows at a broker. It's clear that bottomboy's intelligence is far beyond the lofty SE average to be able to come up with some of this stuff.

No surprise, take someone like Ali who is transparent about herself and business, and Wtushy doesn't like the transparency. Again, not a surprise for Wtushy.

btw, taking 3 years is really a function of not living in NY. I'm from Baaston.

i find people who shill for business on boards like this suspect.
there are ads for sale for people who are here to solicit business.
alison's real estate "expertise" and "curating" commentary is largely windy and useless, and often self-serving and inaccurate.
her arrogance about her harvard degree is pathetic in light of her lack of success in a low-brow profession such as peddling real estate, and writing bubbly real estate how-to crap. her braggage about her high-brow clientele adds to the portrait.

i am selling nothing here. and to the little troupe of defenders, im happy to carry on the discussion if youd like.

Bottoms, if you're into eviscerating people publicly, and mocking their profession as "low-brow," I think it's only fair you offer up your personal details as well, no?

bj,

I have nothing to sell here. My posting here is for my entertainment, not connected to my professional circumstances. So, no, it's not fair to expect me to divulge personal professional details. As I don't expect that of you.

Alison is shilling here for clients she would like to sell to. She is selling her "books" here. Therein lies the difference.

For a Harvard graduate, who arrogantly reminds all regularly of her esteemed alum status, real estate brokering is a bit low-brow, no?